week in review for women's wrestling

http://betterwithbob.blogspot.com/2012/03/week-in-review-for-womens-wrestling-36.html

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And it's certainly an eventful week for the women in all companies (minus FCW of course) as we had a chock full of Divas featured on WWE's various shows, including something that could be a possible storyline heading into WrestleMania. Of course that would be getting our hopes up but you never know. Elsewhere TNA still have a PPV to build towards to. Should be a good one.

Raw - Kelly Kelly vs Nikki Bella:
Less than two minutes and yet was more interesting than any of Kelly's matches against Brie Bella over the Summer. It's been ages since Nikki's got a singles match and even then she hasn't had much of a chance to showcase herself. True this 2-minute match didn't show off much either but she looked quite solid in there. She didn't lock in an arm wringer and call it a day like her sister always does. This was still a fun enough match, mostly because there was actual wrestling in there. I'm not going to complain too much about the time since there was a match in addition to a promo and backstage segment so the Divas did get a lot of time this week. 5/10

Eve's Promo:
Not as fun as her promo on Smackdown but still solid enough. Her mic work is getting better each time she gets a chance to talk and the crowd were eating it up. I guess over the past few weeks, Eve has transformed into a bankable member of the roster who in management's eyes deserves this amount of time on TV. As for the backstage segment, Kelly you are not a Valley Girl so don't use "totally" like it's a comma. This seems to be the start of an Eve/Kelly program which is surprising but welcome anyway. Normally they'd just throw them in a 2-minute match on Raw with no fanfare at all. They've taken to Twitter to keep the mudslinging going so this looks to be an actual feud for Eve. If they get to WrestleMania then I'll be happy as long as their segment gets ten minutes in total. After all, Kelly is popular and Eve is a heat magnet so fans might be interested in their match. I'm assuming Kelly is getting this match because it coincides with her nomination for a Kids' Choice Award.

Ring Ka King - Alissa Flash vs Raisha Saeed:
For those who don't know, Ring Ka King is a special Indian broadcast that uses plenty of TNA talent. Mickie James and Angelina Love have both been booked for it and they air two episodes a weekend. If you're wondering how they had Alissa vs Raisha, if you watch the match it's obvious that it's a man playing Miss Raisha. While not exactly up to the standard of Alissa's RCW intergender matches, it was still fun enough and entertaining. It's always interesting to see Alissa in intergender matches because she works as well with men as she does with women. Entertaining overall, plenty of shenanigans and some solid wrestling thrown in too. 6.5/10

Raisha Saeed & The Sheiks vs The Bollywood Boys & Mickie James:
The second Ring Ka King episode offers a 6-person tag match where Melissa/Alissa is back playing Raisha (or at least it's a woman now). Mickie was wearing her old bell bottom attire and what an entrance for the Bollywood Boys. It's like Kid Rock at WM 25 without being cringeworthy. The Indian fans were really hot for Mickie. It's a real testament to how popular she is that she gets great reactions wherever she goes. The interactions between Mickie and Raisha were solid enough, as they were in their singles match. They didn't get too much ring time but the match overall was very fun, mostly because of how excited the crowd was. 7/10

NXT - Derrick Bateman Intervention:
This was probably one of the randomest and most insane things WWE have ever aired, including that Jerry Springer skit. Funnily enough this reminded me a lot of that. Doesn't seem like they're going with making Kaitlyn and Bateman an actual couple but rather good friends, even though that kiss was something alright. The video package for Maxine was hilarious. I forgot what it's like to have Divas in video packages. And good lord, Alicia Fox's screaming when they kissed.

Kaitlyn vs Maxine:
I called it, this was the main event. While still not as fun as their match from back in October, it was a lot better than their other singles matches on the show, mostly because it got a longer amount of time. Kaitlyn looks even more solid whenever I see her wrestle and she impressed here. She seems to be going for some submissions in her moveset and a the body scissors looked impressive. Maxine was solid as she always was and that kick to the face looked painful. I was expecting to see a couple of Kaitlyn's teeth on the canvas somewhere. Nice finish too. It seems like they're going with a proper Kaitlyn & Bateman vs Maxine & Curtis feud. Also my Aksana is involved as well which gets great marks in my book. 6/10

Impact - Madison Rayne vs ODB:
How over is ODB? Even with the smaller Impact Zone crowds on a taped show she gets some reactions. Not as technical as the match with Gail last week but still very fun because both of these women have strong characters as well as being solid in the ring. That spot with the Bronco Buster counter was...unique I think would be the right word for it. Doesn't exactly inspire much excitement for the PPV though I'm holding out hope that Madison and Gail will stay together after it's over. I lol'd at Gail tripping as she was trying to interfere. 7/10

Velvet Sky & Mickie James vs Angelina Love & Sarita:
Meet the odd couples - strange and random to have Sarita and Angelina teaming together. The only reason I can think of is that they were both the last two out in the battle royal. Somewhere Winter and Rosita are feeling jilted. But anyway, how awesome was this match? Seriously, four talented women given plenty of time to actually wrestle. This showcased their wrestling ability - no story interference, no overbooking, just a nice long and entertaining tag match. Sarita has really been missed from the ring lately and she was awesome as always. I think that suicide dive was a big message to the bookers saying "see what you've been missing out on" and she really does deserve to be on TV more often. Velvet and Mickie had nice chemistry as a team and this reminds me of another tag match these two had against Madison and Gail where they were both very impressive. I love how in the promo Velvet drew attention to the truth - TNA does screw her whenever she gets pushed to the top. I hope this means she will be included in the title picture in the near future. I was expecting Mickie to turn heel on her at the end, judging from what was going on in London. But I wouldn't be surprised if TNA just decided to drop that given that they've lost most of their possible momentum by having both these girls off TV for too long following that. Though I expect they'll start over and build towards a slow turn, which we'll obviously see more of next week. 8.5/10

Superstars - Beth Phoenix vs Alicia Fox:
Finally they get a longer match but there's still a lot more room for improvement. This match was closer to Smackdown length on a good day. I was worried it was going to be a complete squash match but thankfully Alicia got in a bit of offence, though I still think her Superstars bout with Tamina is her best showing from her face run. I would love to see another match with more time added and hopefully made a bit more back and forth, but it did it's job to set Beth's dominance up. She was very entertaining with her personality during the match. She continues to ooze a lot more personality and entertainment than she's known for. 6/10

Smackdown - Eve vs Natalya:
I loved the backstage segment. Natalya finds a way to make this farting gimmick work. Judging from what went down this week, I feel she's making steps towards a face turn and eventual feud with Beth. I doubt this will get to the WrestleMania card because the Eve/Kelly feud seems to be taking precedence over it and I don't think we'd actually get two matches booked for WrestleMania. I was wondering what Eve would be like in the ring as a heel and, judging from what we saw here, she's not going to have much difficulty. I expected her to go for a more submission-based style and of course Natalya works well with everyone. This loss here combined with her repeated losing streak serves to make her look sympathetic and help the fans get behind her. Short but sweet match, as is often the case these days. 5.5/10

Quite an eventful week, I must say. I'm actually looking forward to see what direction this Eve/Kelly feud goes in next and if it does lead to a WrestleMania match. I'm still not totally convinced that Natalya will feud with Beth but I hope it happens eventually.

oh and i forgot to mention we might have a match with Kane vs Aksana on Smackdown next week. WWE have really been great at featuring all the girls on TV weekly without all throwing them in a big multi tag match. too bad Tamina was off TV again this week